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Aim and Shoot: The YouTube Debates

That’s one bit of advice from CNN and YouTube to video-makers out there who might want to submit a video question for the next presidential debate.

As you may have heard by now, the two are joining forces to put on a debate in which you can ask questions via video. The videos will be shown to the eight Democratic presidential candidates at the next debate, which is set for July 23 at the Citadel in Charleston, S.C. The 10 Republican candidates will answer videos in a similar format on Sept. 17 in Florida, in a city still to be determined.

CNN and YouTube held a conference call today with reporters to discuss some details of how this whole thing will work.

They expect thousands of submissions and will probably end up broadcasting between 20 and 30 clips during the two-hour debate, allowing for a few minutes of discussion after each.

The Web site offers a few tips to would-be questioners: be original; be personal; address the question to a particular candidate, or to all of them, but keep it focused, and keep it less than 30 seconds or it probably won’t make the cut.

CNN and YouTube don’t want the candidates to know in advance which videos will be picked, but all the videos will be visible on YouTube and they will be rated by viewers, as they normally are.

David Bohrman, the Washington bureau chief for CNN, is basically the guy who will pick them. He said that if candidates wanted to try to guess which ones he might pick, they would have to wade through thousands of videos, though they will probably dip into the pool to get a sense of what’s out there. And even then, they wouldn’t know which ones would actually be asked.

“The most viewed and most popular questions may not get asked at all,” he said, in part because some might become popular simply through viral spreading, not because they are particularly good clips.

The videos will be shown on a huge projector on the set at the debate, and the candidates will also see them on flat-panel screens built into their podiums. The sponsors will be watching the blogosphere during the debate, and if something develops in response to a candidate’s answer, the moderator, Anderson Cooper, will bring it up. Mr. Bohrman said he might even switch in different videos than he had planned, depending on what happens.

Steve Grove, head of news and politics for YouTube, said that he sees this as a chance for self-expression. “Any type of question goes,” he said, as long as it its “compelling, personal and relevant” and not off-color.

Pressed about what would be different about this debate from others, the executives said it would allow everyone to participate no matter where they lived, as opposed to having to be invited in by the sponsors. And they said video could add drama to the questions.

Mr. Bohrman said he did not expect to pick videos with one person standing in front of a camera for the entire question.

“I will be shocked if the day after the debate you write, ‘Ho-hum, just some more audience questions,’” he said.

He said later in an interview that he expected the questions to be innovative, perhaps from a soldier in Iraq. “Could it be a dud?” he said. “I suppose so. But there’s so much inventiveness out there, I think we’ll get some really good questions.”

Presumably none of them will be asking the candidates to raise their hands.

Update: Some in the blogosphere are already raising concerns, and offering counter-proposals, because of CNN’s decision to select the video questions.

the best thing about this is it gets around the limited exposure candidates get in the debates in that anyone can watch them at their leisure on YouTube. additionally, news media now watch for ‘buzz’ on You Tube, which will certainly include clips from the debates and what their poplularity says about how a given candidate is viewed.

this goes further in that all clips of candidates on YouTube will work for or against them ‘in perpetuity’, as opposed to a simple debate/reaction-to-debate model. the next election will be something new.

Far from being pointless, this will be a great test to see how the Internet affects the future of participatory democracy. If it successfully involves millions in the democratic process, it will be one of the best things that has happened to political contests since the invention of television. I only hope it motivates more people to vote.

The link at TechPresident has an excellant idea: Use the highest-ranked videos in the debate, but entirely hide the video rankings (rating as well as # of views) from the public. That way, the candidates cannot know which is winning, and they can’t prepare for one specific question or another.

To prevent vulgar or otherwise objectionable videos from winning, have a clear and concise set of rules that disqualify videos (swearing, nudity, etc).

If it is just CNN picking videos from the hundreds to thousands submitted, it is only slightly different from CNN generating the questions themselves.

The members of the debate will not be informed of the questions before hand? How…pedestrian.

What question would be asked other than stock policy questions? Where’s the politic-ing? Where’s the _DEBATE_? To debate you need to be prepared. I assume the politicians will just ramble off their ideological clap-trap, and not answer anything directly. If a question requiring a pragmatic response does come up, I expect to see a “I’m not familiar with…” response.

And those “town hall” debates really feel like the inside of a town hall, right? It’s a good idea, but it will get watered down and diluted until it becomes the same old blah-blah again, same stuff, different packaging.

A good idea, but I won’t be completely impressed with it until the video selection scheme is improved.

While the straight up popularity voting may not be appropriate, some way of getting a sense of “THESE are the questions the people want answered” in there will be essential to the credibility of the event. However, manual picking by third parties should still be present for some questions, as well. Everybody loves ‘zingers’. :D

I can imagine some really hard questions being posed. Letting people (and candidates) see which questions are popular ahead of time will force the moderators to ask even not-made-for-TV ones like: “To each of the candidates – If elected will you prosecute President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney for the crimes against humanity they’ve committed during their unprovoked war in Iraq?” Questions like this only get asked if the moderators cannot ignore them. I suppose I should find my camera…

Debates are always merely puffing displays for the candidates. With so many candidates and given the short time allotted to each debate, presidential debates are not substantive. And this year in particular, the moderators are asking candidates for brief and oversimplified answers to questions that demand very complex and nuanced answers. They might as well say, “Candidates, in only one word, have you stopped beating your wife?”

However, although, I will never put much stock in a candidate’s debate performance, I do appreciate very much that CNN and YouTube are exploring new ways of including the public in the political conversation. I think it is worth giving a shot.

In any case, I’m supporting the candidate with the biggest ears, Barack Obama!

Most “journalists” do not understand how Blacks think and time and time again because there are so few Blacks hired by the stations, we hear a White person speaking for us, or so they think. Was there a Black person on the committee to select the youtube questions to be asked on Monday’s debate? Couldn’t find one huh? How about Linda Rice,(CEO Ebony Magazine); Russ Mitchell of CBS for 15 years;a youthful Adia Millett in the architectural venue proving everyone does not have to be a journalists to select questions that appeal across the rainbow population.

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